A Dark Park After Dark [Closed]

Adelyn looks back at her friend with a very serious expression, but doesn’t stop moving forward. She ducks under a branch without trouble as she says, “There are a lot of things adults say not to do that you have to do anyways.”

The seriousness passes just as quickly as it appeared, and she grins again. Facing forward, she hops up on a fallen log and spreads her arms out to indicate the tree just in front of them, a tall oak with good sturdy branches and a bundle of her stuff nestled in the roots.

Then she remembers she’s supposed to be helping Eli too, and turns to extend a hand down and help her over the log. “It’s a lot of things, but some of them are more important than others. Branches that aren’t too far apart or too high, strong enough to hold your weight, no anthills under it.”

She shudders with her last words. That one was learned the hard way.

“I’ll show you the ropes! Don’t worry.”

“You really don’t want to get ants in your pants. It is not fun.” Words spoken from experience, clearly. Adelyn scampers towards the tree, throwing herself at one of the branches and hanging there with her legs tucked up at the knee. She swings lightly. Her claws dig into the bark, and it’s rough under her palm.

The moonlight through the trees gives precious light to see by, faintly illuminating her grin. “It’s a lovely old tree, I bet she’s seen at least a few generations in her branches.”

That would be the case if it was in her forest, at least. Her grin falls a little bit, and she drops back to the ground. “I guess it depends on who gets out here.”

She falls to her knees and rifles through her bag, pulling out a flashlight and holding it up triumphantly. “Here we go!” She tosses the flashlight to Eli. “That should help if you need it, and you can go first if you like, I can give you a boost to getcha started.”

It hasn’t escaped her that she’s taller than Eli by a good margin, and low-hanging to her might be just a little out of comfortable reach for her friend. The first friend she’s made in the city! It’s so exciting!

“Yep, that’s a good branch. Lower-down branches are usually thicker, cause they’re older. It’s when you get up to the thinner ones at the top that you really haveta be really careful.” Adelyn explains, picking herself up and walking over. She hasn’t taught anyone near anything before, so this is good practice. Any practice is good practice, as her poppa told her.

She bounces on her toes a few times. She’s easily able to reach the branch herself, but at Eli’s request she nods eagerly. “Ok!”

She doesn’t even take a second to think about it before she gestures Eli over closer to the trunk. Once they’re in a good spot, she bends down a little and lifts Eli up, right off the ground. Just like her poppa used to do for her, when she was just a little sprout and couldn’t reach as high. She bends her knee a little for Eli to use as a step should she need an extra second.

“Got it?” she asks, unruffled. She’s careful of her claws, even if she can’t see them right now.

“Yay! You did it!” Adelyn grins broadly, clapping her hands together once Eli is up on the branch. Oh, they’re both hands again. She doesn’t remember exactly when that happened, but the sound is still the sound of human skin on animal fur so she doesn’t worry too much about it.

Luckily, she doesn’t need any help to get herself up onto an adjacent branch. She just reaches up and grabs hold, and uses her hind claws to get enough leverage on the trunk to climb up.

Crouching on a branch of her own, one hand on a higher branch for balance, Adelyn feels such a sharp swell of happiness she can’t contain a laugh of pure delight. She has a friend! A friend to climb trees with!

“How does it feel?” She has to ask, eyes bright in the flashlight’s beam. “Your first tree! So exciting! I don’t remember my first, it must’ve been when I was a little baby Aspen.”

Eli is a real go-getter. Adelyn beams as her friend climbs higher into the tree, keeping pace with her and keeping an eye out in case she slips. She stops on a branch for a moment, feeling the leaves at the end rustle in another cool breeze.

“Forever and ever,” she sighs in response, looking out on the forest around them. They aren’t high enough to see over the tops of the trees yet, but she can see a little bit into the trees around them.

Most of the animals must’ve gone to sleep already. What animals stay in such a human-centric area as this one, at least. The night dawdles later and later, and Adelyn can feel the peaceable calm settling over her as well.

“I like all sorts. Pines are fun if you don’t mind getting all sticky with sap. Willows are too weak to climb from the ends, but they’re nice to lay under. Oaks like this one are good and sturdy.”

She pats the trunk of the tree fondly, then re-negotiates her footing in order to grab a higher branch. Pulling herself up leaves the same path free for Eli, and Adelyn wraps one arm around the trunk as an anchor before offering her free hand to her friend. She’s braced to pull her up if she needs to, but Eli might be able to get there on her own. “This one’s a little higher, watch your step.”

“So, how was California? I’ve never been there. I was out in Oregon before I came here.” The light conversation comes a little more naturally now, and Adelyn mentally applauds herself.

“Oh, thank you!” Adelyn beams at the unexpected compliment. She carefully helps Eli up onto the branch with her, before her attention catches on one word in particular.

“School.” She breathes it like a foreign term, her eyes wide. She leans in close to her new friend, the brush of fur at odds with the seemingly normal hand that comes to sandwich Eli’s.

“Tell me about school,” she pleads, entirely forgetting about the question she was asked. “I never go to go, never ever. Are there really lots of teachers and lots of kids? Do they make you sit in tiny little rooms when you’re bad, and only let you outside when you’ve been good?”

Her balance doesn’t falter on the branch despite the way she leans in as though trying to read the answers right out of the other girl’s eyes. She’s never met anyone who went to school good and proper.